Lantern
|next = |synopsis = Kim takes time off; Jimmy tries to make amends; Nacho gambles with his future; Hamlin pushes Chuck to make a decision. |viewers = (live / total) 1.85m / 4.19m }} "Lantern" is the tenth episode of the third season of Better Call Saul and the thirtieth episode of the series altogether. Summary Teaser In a flashback, a teenage Chuck reads The Adventures of Mabel to a younger Jimmy in a tent in their family's backyard in Cicero, Illinois. As he continues reading, the camera closes in on the gas lantern lighting the tent. Act I Kim is taken to the hospital following her car accident and has her broken arm put in a cast. A worried Jimmy comes to her hospital room. That night, the two return to the scene of the crash, where Jimmy tries to pick up the scattered Gatwood Oil documents. At HHM, Chuck confronts Howard and the other partners over his threat to sue the firm. Noting that HHM could go bankrupt if the lawsuit proceeds, Chuck suggests they put their disputes aside. Instead of accepting Chuck's offer of a conciliatory handshake, Howard calls out Chuck for putting his vendettas ahead of the firm's best interest. He hands Chuck a check for $3 million (the first of three installments) paid out of his own pocket, eliminating Chuck's leverage over HHM. In the lobby, Chuck is forced to watch as Howard announces his departure in front of the assembled staff. Meanwhile, Jimmy tends to Kim as she recovers at her house. While making her breakfast, Jimmy says that he plans to move out of Wexler McGill's office space and sublet the building. He blames himself for Kim's accident, feeling that the Mesa Verde address swap was the root cause of Kim overworking herself. Kim replies that falling asleep at the wheel was a result of her own decisions, and expresses her guilt for putting herself and other people in danger. Jimmy promises Kim that he will "fix things." Act II Hector, with Nacho and Arturo in tow, arrives at Manuel's upholstery shop. Nacho gives Hector a tour of the property and explains how it will be used for Hector's drug business. Hector approaches Manuel and offers him several hundred dollars, but Manuel tells him to get out of the shop. Nacho tells his father to think about their loved ones, persuading him to take the money. Outside, Nacho tries to tell Hector that his father will eventually come around, but Hector replies that he doesn't trust him. At Kim's house, Francesca presents her with get-well gifts from Mesa Verde and Billy Gatwood. She comments that Kim is lucky to have survived her crash on that particular road, commenting to have seen deadly accidents while driving there. Despite being told that they might be able to meet Gatwood's deadline, Kim tells Francesca to cancel his meeting and postpone her other appointments. The two women go to Blockbuster Video and rent a bunch of DVDs. Kim's words to Jimmy cause him to reconsider his dealings with Chuck, leading him to reluctantly drive to his brother's house to check up on him. Upon entering, Jimmy is surprised to see that Chuck has reinstalled the electricity to the house. He tells Chuck that he regrets how he handled their feud, and signals that he wants to make amends. Chuck rejects Jimmy's overture, saying that his sentiments are pointless because it is in his inherent nature to hurt those around him, no matter what he says or feels. He further coldly tells Jimmy that he never really mattered to him. Crushed, Jimmy leaves. That night, Chuck, unable to sleep, goes to the circuit breaker panel and switches off all of the breakers. He lies awake in the dark, alone. Act III Jimmy drops by Irene's room at Sandpiper Crossing to celebrate the settlement with balloons and a cake. He tries to make suggestions for how Irene can spend the money, but she tells him that her friends remain upset with her. At the shopping mall, Jimmy sits with Irene's chair yoga group and unsuccessfully tries to persuade them to reconcile with her. The other ladies remark that Jimmy is a "good friend" and that Irene doesn't deserve him, unaware of his role in manipulating them all into agreeing to the settlement. Meanwhile, Chuck suffers a major relapse of his EHS delusion. He calls the power company, asking why the meter is still running when he has shut off the power to his house. Seeking to find the source of electricity, he goes around the house flipping switches and unscrewing bulbs, periodically checking to see if his meter has stopped. After canceling an appointment with Dr. Cruz, he even disconnects his phone. Chuck combs the walls with his hands, trying to divine the source of the usage. Each time he feels a likely spot, he tears into the wall with a hammer or pry bar. After hours of searching, he finds a piece of wiring hidden in the wall but discovers that the meter is still running. In anger, he destroys the meter with a baseball bat. Act IV BCS 310 09.png BCS 310 10.png BCS 310 11.png BCS 310 12.png Nacho sits in his van outside the upholstery shop, with a gun on the passenger seat. When Hector pulls up in his car, Nacho takes the gun and attempts an ambush. However, Arturo and Carlos arrive and prevent Nacho from proceeding. The four watch as Gus and Juan Bolsa arrive to confront them. Bolsa reiterates Don Eladio's position that Gus's "chicken trucks" will do all of the cross-border transportation for the Juárez Cartel. Hector becomes increasingly enraged and suffers severe chest pains again. He takes Nacho's spiked pills, dropping the bottle and remainder on the ground, where Nacho can retrieve them. As planned, the pills have no effect and Hector collapses. Gus urges Bolsa to leave the scene as he performs CPR on Hector, saving his life. After Hector is loaded into an ambulance, Gus suspiciously eyes Nacho. BCS 310 13.png BCS 310 14.png BCS 310 15.png BCS 310 16.png Act V Jimmy returns to Kim's house, where they are watching a marathon of rented movies while she is taking time off of work. Jimmy reports that his efforts to fix the rift between Irene and her friends have kept ending in failure, with his efforts to put in a good word for Irene having the opposite effect. Jimmy finally devises a way to do right by Irene, but tells Kim that "I really, really don't want to do it." The following day, Jimmy shows up at Sandpiper to lead Irene's chair yoga group. Erin Brill appears and demands to see Jimmy outside, where she confronts him about lying to his clients to get an early payday from the settlement. Jimmy confirms her accusations and makes jabs at Irene and her friends, seemingly unaware that they all can hear him back in the yoga room through his wireless microphone. When he returns, Irene and her friends rebuke him and walk away. It is revealed that Jimmy engineered the incident with Erin to help Irene and forego the settlement, though Erin says that she was telling the truth when she said Jimmy is disgusting. Later, Jimmy and Kim move out of their office space at WM. They apologize to Francesca for laying her off, but she says that she will be able to return to her job at the Motor Vehicle Division. Jimmy promises to hire her back if he and Kim restart their practice, but Francesca gives a disbelieving acknowledgement. After Francesca leaves, Jimmy throws away his Rolodex, seeing as he has disgraced himself with his elderly clients. Kim pulls it out of the trash, saying "you never know." After admiring the WM wall mural, the two leave. BCS 310 19.png BCS 310 20.png BCS 310 21.png That night, we find that Chuck has thrown all of his electrical appliances into his backyard. Chuck, broken and alone, sits in the middle of his now wrecked house wrapped in a space blanket, and kicks his desk repeatedly in an attempt to knock over his gas lantern. He eventually succeeds, allowing the house to catch fire with him inside. Official Photos better-call-saul-episode-310-chuck-mckean-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-jimmy-odenkirk-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-jimmy-odenkirk-6-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-jimmy-odenkirk-2-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-hector-margolis-2-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-jimmy-odenkirk-5-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-gus-esposito-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-hector-margolis-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-jimmy-odenkirk-4-935.jpg better-call-saul-episode-310-jimmy-odenkirk-3-935.jpg Trivia * This episode is the second longest in the series so far (56 minutes), overtaken by the final episode (60 minutes) of the fourth season. Taking into account the Breaking Bad pilot (58 minutes), it is also the third longest episode in the Breaking Bad universe. * This is the first season finale of Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul that wasn't written by Vince Gilligan or Peter Gould. ** This is the first episode directed by Peter Gould that he did not write. * This episode is only the second in which Mike does not appear. * The episode marks the death of Chuck. While his fate is ambiguous in the episode itself, Michael McKean confirmed Chuck's death in an interview with the New York Times. Chuck's fate is later confirmed on-screen in . ** Chuck is the first main character to die. * The toll-free number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) was shown after the end credits of this episode. * This episode explains what led to Hector suffering the stroke, which would leave him permanently disabled throughout the events of Breaking Bad. * During the episode, Kim has Billy Gatwood referred to the law firm of Schweikart and Cokely. This is the same firm that's representing Sandpiper Crossing and that Kim had gotten a job offer from. *Before he collapses, Hector's lip curls similarly to how it did throughout Breaking Bad. *In the episode's teaser, we see a teenage Chuck read to a young Jimmy "The Adventures of Mabel", something that was first referenced in the season premiere . Two important elements of this episode are also visible in the tent: the lantern and the baseball bat. * When Kim is in the Blockbuster video store, a DVD of starring Chris Farley is visible. Bob Odenkirk worked with Farley at Second City and Saturday Night Live, and helped write and create the popular Farley character "Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker" famous from SNL. Also visible on the wall rack are DVDs of , which co-starred Laura Fraser. *While trying to resuscitate Hector, Gus utters the phrase "no te mueras, cabrón" multiple times. This translates from Spanish to "don't you die, you bastard". * According to Talking Saul, Peter Gould based the scene in which Chuck smashes the walls of his house with an axe on the scene at the end of the where the character Harry Caul dismantles his apartment looking for a listening device, while Michael McKean based his performance on the Ray Bradbury short story " ". *In (fifth episode of the first season), Dr. Cruz tries to alert Jimmy that Chuck suffers from a mental illness and is a danger to himself. In particular, she warns that the gas lantern could set his house on fire. *The whole third season has left subtle clues foreshadowing Chuck's final act, often by making the gas lantern take center stage: **"Mabel": The title was a reference to The Adventures of Mabel, a book Chuck read to Jimmy when they were children. The author, Harry Thurston Peck, committed suicide following professional disgrace. ** "Witness": The lantern is prominently seen as Chuck and his private investigator wait inside the house for Jimmy to steal the confession tape, and Jimmy threatens to burn the house down when grilling Chuck on the location of a possible second tape. ** "Sunk Costs": While he is waiting for the police to take him into custody, Jimmy predicts that Chuck will alienate everyone he knows and die alone after being overwhelmed by his EHS ** "Sabrosito": Mike is hired by Jimmy and Kim to take photos of Chuck's house to present to Rebecca. One of these photos is of the lantern sitting atop a bunch of newspapers, which Jimmy takes special note of when they meet at the diner to make the exchange. ** "Chicanery": Jimmy presents said photo during his bar hearing. ** The flashback at the beginning of the episode, where the camera zooms in on a lantern as Chuck reads The Adventures of Mabel to Jimmy. ** Just the fact that the episodes that he was getting better in were "Slip" and "Fall". Production Credits Starring= Starring * Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill * Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut (credit only) * Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler * Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin * Michael Mando as Nacho Varga * Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo "Gus" Fring * Michael McKean as Chuck McGill |-| Guest Starring= Guest Starring * Javier Grajeda as Juan Bolsa * Jessie Ennis as Erin Brill * Bonnie Bartlett as Helen * Jean Effron as Irene Landry * Phyllis Applegate as Myrtle * Carol Mansell as Rose * Tina Parker as Francesca Liddy * Juan Carlos Cantu as Manuel Varga * Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca |-| Co-Starring= Co-Starring * Vincent Fuentes as Arturo * Efrain Villa as Carlos * Gabriel Rush as Young Chuck * Cole Whitaker as Young Jimmy * Sarah Minnich as Brenda * Audrey Moore as Julie * James E. Dowling as Francis * Anthony Escobar as Gesualdo * Manny Rubio as Worker * Kimberly Kiegel as Senior Attorney * Courtney Taylor as HHM Employee * Jessica Flores as EMT #1 * Zacharia Azar as EMT #2 * Marissa Woolf as Hospital Technician |-| Uncredited= Uncredited * Aeryn Peterson as Corporate Client * Leana Lewis as Actress * Tom Thumb as D.E.A. Agent Filming Locations * The A-Z Upholstery Shop is located at 6611 Zuni Rd SE Albuquerque NM , which is actually an upholstery shop named Walts Top Shop & Seat Covers. Featured Music *'Dinero Sucio' by Los Grandes de Tijuana *'Little L' by Jamiroquai *'It Never Entered My Mind' by Miles Davis *'Steal Away' by Robbie Dupree Memorable Quotes es:Lantern Category:Season 3 episodes (Better Call Saul)